Parva 1

Adi Parva

A river, a fisherman's daughter, and a line that almost ended before it began

How the story begins

This story was first told at a sacrifice, and the sacrifice was an act of revenge.

King Janamejaya's father, Parikshit, had died of the bite of a snake named Takshaka. To avenge him, the son held a snake sacrifice, a rite in which the mantras drew snakes from across the earth helplessly into the fire.

The fire burned. The snakes fell. And in that very assembly, Vyasa's disciple Vaishampayana began telling Janamejaya the story of his own lineage. Much later, a bard named Ugrashrava told the same story again to a gathering of sages in the Naimisha forest. So the Mahabharata is, from its very beginning, a story within a story, someone telling it to someone, having himself heard it from someone else. Vyasa is regarded as its author, but he is also a character inside it.

Ganga's condition

The story turns back to Shantanu, king of Hastinapura. One day, on the bank of the Ganga, he saw a woman and proposed marriage. She agreed, but on one condition, Shantanu would never stop her from doing anything, and never ask why she did it. The day he questioned her, she would leave. Shantanu agreed.

Their first son was born. Ganga carried him to the river and let him go into the water. Shantanu said nothing. The same happened with the second, then the third, the fourth, all the way to the seventh. Each time Shantanu stayed silent, because he knew that questioning her meant she would leave. But at the eighth child, he could not hold himself back.

Then Ganga explained. All eight infants were Vasus, gods who had been cursed to be born as mortals. Seven were freed from that life the moment they were born. The eighth had to live a full human life. That child was Devavrata, who would later be called Bhishma.

Bhishma's vow

Years later Shantanu fell in love with Satyavati. Her father set a condition on the marriage, that only her son could become king of Hastinapura. Shantanu already had a worthy heir in Devavrata, so he said nothing and went home.

Devavrata learned the reason for his father's sorrow and went himself to Satyavati's father. He said he would never claim the throne. The answer came back, your sons might. So Devavrata took a second, far heavier vow, that he would never marry, and would have no children at all. It was this terrible vow that earned him the name Bhishma. Shantanu, moved, granted him a boon, that he could choose the hour of his own death.

Vyasa's three sons

Satyavati's two sons in turn became kings, but both died without heirs. The line was about to end when Satyavati revealed an old secret. Before her marriage, she had borne a son to the sage Parashara, Vyasa. Vyasa was summoned. Through the custom of niyoga, Dhritarashtra was born to Ambika, Pandu to Ambalika, and Vidura to a serving woman. Dhritarashtra was blind from birth, so Pandu became king. Vidura could never be king, but he would go on to give the clearest, hardest counsel in the whole story.

Then Pandu's life took a turn. Out hunting, he shot an arrow at a deer, which was in fact the sage Kindama in that form, together with his wife. Dying, the sage cursed him, that the moment Pandu came together with his wife, he would die. Pandu gave up the throne and went to the forest.

But Kunti held a mantra given to her by the sage Durvasa, one that let her summon any god. Before her marriage, simply to test whether it truly worked, she had called upon the Sun. A son was born to her, wearing armor and earrings from birth. Unmarried and afraid, Kunti set the child adrift on the river in a basket. A charioteer couple, Adhiratha and Radha, raised him. That child would become Karna.

In the forest, the same mantra gave Pandu his children. Yudhishthira was born of Dharma, Bhima of the wind-god, and Arjuna of Indra. Madri called on the Ashvins and bore Nakula and Sahadeva. The five brothers grew up there. Then Pandu's curse came due, and he died. Kunti brought the five boys back to Hastinapura, where the Pandavas grew up alongside Dhritarashtra's sons, and where Duryodhana's insecurity grew with them, since Yudhishthira was the elder and had the stronger claim to the throne.

Drona and Drupada

The princes' education fell to Dronacharya. Drona's own story began with a broken promise. As boys, he and Drupada, prince of Panchala, had studied together, and Drupada had said that when he became king, half the kingdom would be Drona's. Years later, Drona arrived poor and reminded him. Drupada, now king, refused to honor the old friendship. Drona went home, but did not forget the insult.

Ekalavya's thumb

Around this time Arjuna emerged as Drona's most gifted student. Drona promised to make him the greatest archer alive. Then a Nishada youth, Ekalavya, came asking to be taught. Drona refused him. Ekalavya went into the forest, made a clay image of Drona, and practiced alone before it. When Drona later saw his extraordinary skill, he asked for a fee, the thumb of his right hand. Ekalavya cut it off and gave it without hesitation, and never shot the same way again.

The text does not say Drona was right. It simply records what happened, and that the promise had been made to Arjuna.

Karna crowned king of Anga

In the princes' public exhibition, Arjuna stood out above the rest. Then Karna stepped onto the field and challenged him. His birth was questioned, since a duel with a prince required royal standing. In that moment Duryodhana crowned Karna king of Anga. Karna asked what he wanted in return. Duryodhana asked only for his friendship, a friendship that would keep Karna bound to that side until the very last days of the war.

When the training ended, Drona asked for his fee, bring Drupada to me as a prisoner. Arjuna defeated Drupada and brought him before Drona, who took half his kingdom and said that now they were equals, and friendship was possible. Drupada returned home, carrying his humiliation with him. He performed a sacrifice to gain a son who could kill Drona. From that same fire came Dhrishtadyumna, and Draupadi.

The house of lac

Duryodhana now plotted to remove the Pandavas. A grand house was built for them at Varanavata, handsome to look at, made of lac, ghee, and other flammable things — that is why it was called the house of lac. Vidura warned Yudhishthira in signs. The Pandavas secretly had a tunnel dug. One night the house caught fire, and the Pandavas escaped with Kunti through the tunnel. In the morning, charred bodies were found, and everyone believed the Pandavas were dead.

Believed dead by the world, the Pandavas now wandered the forests in disguise. There the demon Hidimba attacked them, and Bhima killed him. Hidimba's sister Hidimba was drawn to Bhima. With Kunti's consent they married, and their son Ghatotkacha was born.

Draupadi's swayamvara

Some time later, Draupadi's swayamvara was held in Panchala. The test was hard, a fish turning above, water below. The archer had to aim by its reflection. Great kings failed. Then Arjuna, disguised as a Brahmin, rose and struck the mark. The Pandavas brought Draupadi home. Kunti, without looking, said, whatever you have brought, share it among yourselves. By the time she saw what her sons had brought, the words were already spoken. Vyasa later justified the marriage, and Draupadi became wife to all five Pandavas.

This is the strangest thing in the text, and the Mahabharata does not hide it. It tells it plainly, and returns to question it more than once.

Indraprastha

Once it was known that the Pandavas were alive, the question of power in Hastinapura opened again. In the end Dhritarashtra divided the kingdom. The Pandavas received Khandavaprastha, a barren, difficult tract of land. They settled it and made it Indraprastha.

The brothers had agreed on a rule among themselves: while one was with Draupadi, no other would enter. Whoever broke it would spend twelve years in the forest. One day Arjuna needed a weapon and walked into the room where Yudhishthira and Draupadi were. The reason was good, but the rule was the rule. Arjuna accepted twelve years of pilgrimage as the penalty. On this journey he married Ulupi, then Chitrangada, and later Krishna's sister Subhadra. Chitrangada bore Babhruvahana, and Subhadra bore Abhimanyu, who would go on to be at the center of one of the most decisive moments of the story at Kurukshetra.

After returning to Indraprastha, one more event took place, essential to understanding how the next parva begins. To help Agni, Krishna and Arjuna set fire to the Khandava forest. Among those who escaped the blaze was the demon Maya. Arjuna let him live. Grateful, Maya said he would build something for the Pandavas in return, the very assembly hall that would soon make Indraprastha famous.

It is from here that Krishna, too, becomes a permanent presence at the center of the story. He is kin to the Pandavas through Kunti, but far more important is this, that from here on, at every major turning point, he will be found standing beside some decision, sometimes as charioteer, sometimes as envoy, sometimes as counsel, and sometimes as the one person who sees the hidden way when no one else can.

Note: Shantanu and Ganga, the eight Vasus, Bhishma's vow and the boon of death at will, the three sons through Vyasa, Ekalavya's thumb, the house of lac, Draupadi's swayamvara and the burning of Khandava are all in the Adi Parva of Vyasa's Mahabharata. Ganesha writing the epic down, however, is not in the critical edition. Vyasa dictating while Ganesha wrote without stopping his pen comes from later tradition, and today it is one of the most repeated things about the epic. Draupadi's marriage to five brothers is in the text, and the text itself questions it in several places — nothing is concealed. In the Ekalavya episode the text offers no defence of Drona; it simply records what happened. The detailed form of the swayamvara test — the reflection in the water and the eye of the turning fish — is best known from the later retelling traditions; the critical edition describes the device and the target far more plainly.

Source: Mahabharata (ascribed by tradition to Vyasa), Adi Parva

Now — how much stayed with you?

Who am I?

I gave two promises — that I would never be king, and never marry. My name comes from that vow. Who am I?

  • Vidura
  • Dhritarashtra
  • Bhishma
  • Pandu
Read the whole story — How the name came

At birth his name was Devavrata — the eighth son of Ganga.

Satyavati's father's condition was only that the throne go to Satyavati's son. Devavrata accepted that.

But the fisherman went on to say that Devavrata's own sons could claim it later. So Devavrata gave a second and far heavier promise — lifelong celibacy.

At that moment flowers fell from the sky and the sound "Bhishma, Bhishma" was heard. Shantanu gave him the boon of choosing his own death — he would die only when he wished to. That boon became the greatest problem at Kurukshetra.

Vyasa or tradition?

Ganesha writing the Mahabharata down as Vyasa dictated — which statement about this episode is right?

  • It is the first chapter of the Mahabharata
  • It comes from the Ramayana
  • Vyasa wrote it himself
  • It is not in the critical edition; it comes from later tradition
Read the whole story — Who took the dictation

This is one of those stories so widely told that its absence from the critical edition comes as a surprise.

The familiar form is this: Vyasa said he would speak and Ganesha would write; Ganesha made it a condition that the pen must not stop; Vyasa countered that Ganesha must not write anything without understanding it — and then dropped difficult verses in along the way to buy himself thinking time.

It is a fine story, and it says something true about how the Mahabharata was made — that it was built in layers.

But the episode is not in the Pune critical edition. Which is why it is here, in a tale, and not in the story itself.

Fact

On what occasion was the Mahabharata first told?

  • At Janamejaya's snake sacrifice
  • At the rajasuya sacrifice
  • Before the battle of Kurukshetra
  • At a horse sacrifice
Read the whole story — The sacrifice of snakes

Janamejaya was Parikshit's son, and Parikshit was Arjuna's grandson — Abhimanyu's son.

Parikshit died of a bite from the naga Takshaka. In return Janamejaya began the snake sacrifice, in which the force of the mantras dragged snakes into the fire.

Astika stopped it — his mother from the naga line, his father the sage Jaratkaru. He asked Janamejaya for a boon and had the sacrifice ended.

In that same assembly Vaishampayana told the Mahabharata. So the whole book is a story within a story — and the listener belongs to the very line whose story is being told.

Why is that?

Ganga carried her seven newborn sons into the river and Shantanu said nothing. Why did he stay silent?

  • Because he was asleep
  • Because he did not know
  • Because the condition of the marriage was that he would never stop or question her
  • Because he had asked her to
Read the whole story — Who those eight were

The Mahabharata tells this as a story of a curse. They were the eight Vasus, cursed by the sage Vasishtha to be born as men — they had tried to steal his cow.

The Vasus had asked Ganga to bear them and release them at once, so they would not have to live out a long human life.

The eighth Vasu — who had the largest hand in the theft — had to live the whole of it. That is Devavrata.

So Bhishma's long, hard, solitary life is part of that curse. The story says from the start that he will suffer most.

Whose son?

I am the son of Satyavati and the sage Parashara. Tradition holds me the author of this story — and I am a character in it too. Who am I?

  • Vaishampayana
  • Vyasa
  • Shantanu
  • Astika
Read the whole story — Who Vyasa was

Vyasa was Satyavati's son by the sage Parashara — before her marriage to Shantanu. Tradition ties the making of the Mahabharata to him.

He was born on an island and was dark of colour, so he was called Krishna Dvaipayana. "Vyasa" is a title — the one who divided the Vedas.

So the man writing the story is also the father of the line the story is about. He comes into it repeatedly — to advise, to warn, and at the end to console.

The Ramayana does the same: Valmiki stands inside the story he composed. Both epics keep their own maker inside them.

What happened?

Kunti called the sun out of curiosity. What happened next?

  • A son was born, and she set him on the river
  • Nothing happened; the mantra did not work
  • The sun cursed her
  • The mantra was gone for good
Read the whole story — The one born first

The sage Durvasa gave Kunti the mantra, pleased with her service — whichever god she called would give her a child.

She was unmarried then, and recited it only to see whether it really worked. The sun appeared.

The boy was born with armour and earrings — joined to his body, which made him nearly impossible to kill.

Kunti put him in a box and set him on the river. This is the Karna who will one day stand against his own brothers — and never know, until the end, that they are his brothers.

Who am I?

My teacher refused to take me as a student. I made an image of him and practised alone — and then he asked me for my thumb. Who am I?

  • Karna
  • Ashwatthama
  • Ekalavya
  • Abhimanyu
Read the whole story — Why the thumb was asked for

The Mahabharata keeps this episode plain and offers no justification.

Drona had promised Arjuna he would make him the finest archer in the world. Ekalavya stood in the way of that promise.

Ekalavya had taken Drona as his teacher — even though Drona had not taken him as a student. That is what made the fee askable.

Without a thumb, drawing a bow is close to impossible. The story is told as an example of devotion to a teacher, but the text leaves it far more uncomfortable than that.

Who said it?

Karna was stopped from challenging Arjuna in the arena because he was not a king. Who then stood up and made him king of Anga?

  • Bhishma
  • Drona
  • Dhritarashtra
  • Duryodhana
Read the whole story — A friendship that lasted to the end

Duryodhana has few moments in the Mahabharata where he looks generous. This is the largest of them.

In open assembly he handed a humiliated young man a kingdom — without asking who he was.

Karna asked what he wanted in return. Duryodhana said: your friendship.

That friendship will keep Karna on the side he himself calls wrong more than once. And it is why, even when Krishna tells him he is Kunti's son, he will not change sides.

Riddle

I was a palace, but I was not built to be lived in. There was lac and ghee in my walls. What am I?

  • The hall at Indraprastha
  • The house of lac
  • The Khandava forest
  • The court at Hastinapura
Read the whole story — Who had the tunnel dug

The plan was Duryodhana's and Shakuni's, and Purochana built the house.

Vidura got wind of it. He warned Yudhishthira in the mlechchha tongue so that those standing near would not follow — telling him to be the creature that digs its way out to escape fire.

Then Vidura sent a digger, who cut the tunnel quietly.

On the night of the fire the Pandavas went. Seeing the bodies in the palace, everyone believed the Pandavas dead — and that mistake served them afterwards.

Fact

What was the condition at Draupadi's swayamvara?

  • To lift Shiva's bow
  • To hit a turning fish overhead by looking at its reflection in water below
  • To defeat a hundred warriors
  • To master a bull
Read the whole story — The one who was refused

Karna rose at the swayamvara too, and many hold that he could have made the shot.

Draupadi stopped him — saying she would not marry a charioteer's son.

Karna did not forget the insult as long as he lived. Later, in the assembly, when Draupadi is mistreated, Karna will not stay quiet.

The text also shows that a swayamvara was not simply a shooting contest — line, caste and politics were all in it.

Why is that?

Draupadi was married to all five Pandavas. Where does the story start that?

  • Kunti said, without looking, to share whatever they had brought among themselves
  • Arjuna proposed it
  • Drupada had set that condition
  • Vyasa ordered it
Read the whole story — One sentence, and five marriages

The Pandavas were living in a potter's house dressed as brahmins, and lived by begging.

Coming back, they said they had brought a great alms today. Kunti answered from inside, without looking, what she said every day — share it among you.

The words had been spoken, and a mother's word could not be made false. Drupada objected, but Vyasa came and justified it.

Vyasa told the story of Draupadi's former birth, in which she had asked Shiva five times for a husband. The text supplies this explanation itself; it is not later tradition.

Put it in order

Which is the right order of these events?

  • Bhishma's vow → the house of lac → Draupadi's swayamvara → Indraprastha
  • The house of lac → Bhishma's vow → Draupadi's swayamvara → Indraprastha
  • Bhishma's vow → Draupadi's swayamvara → the house of lac → Indraprastha
  • Bhishma's vow → Indraprastha → the house of lac → Draupadi's swayamvara
Read the whole story — One parva, three generations

The finest thing about the Adi Parva is that it crosses three generations on its own.

It starts with Shantanu and Ganga, then Bhishma's vow, Satyavati, Vyasa, Dhritarashtra and Pandu and Vidura, then the Pandavas and Kauravas, and ends at Indraprastha.

So before the war has begun the reader has already seen three generations of promises, curses and humiliations.

Which is why Kurukshetra never feels sudden. The Mahabharata lays out its whole cause in advance.

Who am I?

I was held the wisest by birth, but being a maid's son I could not be king. I was the one who warned the Pandavas about the fire. Who am I?

  • Dhritarashtra
  • Vidura
  • Sanjaya
  • Kripacharya
Read the whole story — The one who knew, and did not keep quiet

Vidura is among the very few in the Mahabharata who almost always gives the right advice — and is almost always ignored.

He warned before the house of lac. In the dicing assembly he objected the most sharply of anyone.

By birth he was brother to Dhritarashtra and Pandu, but his mother was a maid, so he stayed outside the succession.

The text also calls him an incarnation of dharma — so the one who speaks most rightly is the one given the least standing.

What happened?

Why did Arjuna have to take twelve years of pilgrimage?

  • He had broken the rule agreed between the brothers
  • He had lost a war
  • Dhritarashtra sent him
  • He had lost to Karna
Read the whole story — His own sentence

After Draupadi's marriage to all five, Narada had suggested a rule so the brothers would not quarrel — while one was with Draupadi, another was not to come into that room.

A brahmin's cows were stolen and he asked Arjuna for help. Arjuna's weapons were in that room.

Arjuna went in, took the weapons, got the cows back — and on returning accepted twelve years of pilgrimage himself. Yudhishthira tried to stop him; he would not have it.

On that journey he married Ulupi, Chitrangada and Subhadra. Subhadra was Krishna's sister — and Abhimanyu was her son.

Fact

Which land did the Pandavas get in the division, where they founded Indraprastha?

  • Hastinapura
  • Panchala
  • Mathura
  • Khandavaprastha
Read the whole story — From waste to a city

The division was not generous. The Kauravas kept a settled Hastinapura, and the Pandavas got the tract nobody wanted.

The Pandavas built their city there and named it Indraprastha.

Later Maya the danava built the hall there that became famous for its illusions.

And that city and that hall are what set off Duryodhana's envy — from which the whole chain up to the dicing assembly follows.

Who said it?

"Whatever you have brought, share it among you." — who said this, and about what?

  • Kunti, without looking
  • Drupada, about the dowry
  • Vyasa, about the kingdom
  • Yudhishthira, about wealth
Read the whole story — A word once spoken

This happens again and again in the Mahabharata — somebody says one sentence, and then the whole story goes to work fulfilling it.

Shantanu's promise, Bhishma's vow, this sentence of Kunti's, and later Yudhishthira agreeing to the dice.

There is no bad intent in any of them. The damage comes not from intent but from the word said.

This is what separates the Mahabharata from the Ramayana. There, a promise is dharma; here, a promise is a trap.

Who am I?

I came out of a burning forest alive. In gratitude I built the hall that changes everything. Who am I?

  • Vishvakarma
  • Nala
  • Ghatotkacha
  • Maya the danava
Read the whole story — The hall the war came out of

Arjuna and Krishna burned the Khandava forest to help Agni. Very few creatures came out of that fire.

Maya the danava was one. He told Arjuna he wanted to build something in return.

He built the hall at Indraprastha, where water looked like floor and floor like water.

In that hall Duryodhana will fall, be laughed at, and the dicing plan will be made. So the whole war begins in a building put up out of gratitude.

Riddle

I am the line's greatest problem and its greatest gift. Because of me Bhishma got what nobody else got — and that same thing made the war harder. What am I?

  • The boon of choosing his own death
  • The armour and earrings
  • The brahmastra
  • Divine sight
Read the whole story — The man who could choose his own death

Shantanu gave the boon out of gladness at his son's vow.

What it meant was that Bhishma could be beaten but not killed — not unless he wished it.

At Kurukshetra that became the largest obstacle of all. For ten days Bhishma commanded the Kaurava army and the Pandavas could not shift him.

In the end it was Bhishma who told them the way. And lying on the bed of arrows he waited for the sun's northward turn to die — so he carried the full weight of the boon himself.